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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  October 3, 2012 10:00am-11:00am PDT

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they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that's been buried the last four years. >> vice president biden just today said that the middle class over the last four years has been, quote, buried. we agree. that means we need to stop digging by electing mitt romney the next president of the united states! >> today, heavy hitters are fighting back. senator marco rubio just now in denver. >> the last four years the american middle class has been buried. those aren't my words. those happened to be the words of the distinguished vice president of the united states, mr. joe biden. no, don't boo. he's the best thing we got going, guys. >> and how's this for trail mix? mitt romney got more than he bargained for when he posed at chipotle after ordering a
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burrito bowl in a photo op that's an internet sensation. good day, andrea mitchell live in denver at the site of tonight's presidential debate, the first time in five years that barack obama and mitt romney are going to be face-to-face in what the local newspaper is headlining as the duel in denver. joining me now for our daily fix, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com. first of all, this, the big face-off, let's talk about the state of the race. we have new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll numbers showing a slight tightening in the race. fou looks as though mitt romney is in the national polls slightly narrowing the gap. other problems within those numbers, problems for romney. >> yeah. i mean first of all let me say i love duel in denver. i'm a big fan of that one. i think andrea, look, last week there was a ton of polling both in swing states and nationally that i think caught barack obama sort of at the apex of the bounce he had received post-convention and post a
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couple bad weeks for mitt romney and mitt romney at the nader of where he could possibly be in a race where you have the country as divided as it is. the fact that things are moving back towards at the national level, 49/46, i think should not be terribly surprising. i continue to believe the problem for mitt romney is not national polling. it is swing state polling. nbc/marist, you put out data this morning, close in several states but still in ohio, mitt romney down by 8 points among likely voters. i think that's very problematic for him. if he loses ohio getting to 270 electoral votes becomes not impossible but much more difficult. >> at the same time in the national poll, right track up to 40%, still not great, but it's the highest number we've seen in a number of years. this is better for the president. the enthusiasm gap still favors the president. >> yeah. the right track number i think
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is fascinating, andrea, because there's no obvious reason in the country in terms of economic indicators or anything else that people should be all of a sudden getting more optimistic about the direction of the country after they spent several years in the 30s in terms of people saying right direction but you're right, any kind of boost of optimism, and you've actually seen president obama moving in coordination with this, the question of is president obama handling the economy still not great but better. anything like that, helps the incumbent. remember, president obama's not going to be able to make the case that he fixed everything in four years. he's not trying to do that. what he has to say is i've made progress and can make more. in order to make that argument you have to be able to show people you've made progress or at least have people believe you've made progress, movement in the right direction numbers suggest that he's making that case. >> and we also have our new telemundo/nbc news poll breaking within this hour and that shows a 50-point lead among hispanic
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voters. 71/21 likely voters. that is a huge lead. the question is, of course, whether there is enthusiasm among hispanic voters and whether they're going to come out and vote. >> right. and even bigger gap than 69/31 what president obama beat john mccain among latinos in 2008. look, this is a problem in this election for republicans, andrea, but a bigger problem in 2016, 2020 and beyond. the hispanic community is obviously a young community, it's a growing community, it's a community that's going to register to vote more in line with their population numbers in years to come. republicans simply cannot lose the hispanic vote by 40, 50 points. they can't even lose it by 20 points. people like jeb bush, marco rubio who you showed earlier they understand that. i think the party needs to have a reckoning with where they are in immigration and courting hispanics. numbers like that, mitt romney maybe can win with a number like that, possibly nationally, but i will tell you in 2016, 2020 and
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beyond the party nominee will be hard pressed to win losing hispanic business that kind of margin. >> and finally, how big a deal is joe biden saying that the middle class has been buried for the last four years? >> yeah. >> republicans are going to make a big deal out of it. >> and are making a big deal out of it. web video this morning, you played paul ryan's comments. you know, i don't -- if president obama and his campaign team had a choice, i think they would rather joe biden not have used that phrase in relation to the last four years. that said, i think the life cycle of a gaffe now, andrea is so small it kind of rises up and becomes a huge thing for 15 minutes or one day, and then it disappears. my guess is, at 9:01 p.m. tonight when the debate starts, this will not be as big a deal and there will be new things to talk about, new issues to digest, again, not a great moment for joe biden and clearly one the white house would have rather he not have said.
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i just don't know that, you know, in two weeks time we're talking about it. >> all right. we'll see what -- whether there's a new gaffe or two or three to replace that one tonight. thank you very much. see you later. joining me in denver, stephanie cutter, deputy campaign manager for the president's re-election effort. where were you when you heard joe biden yesterday? >> i don't remember. because we don't see this as a tremendous deal. the romney campaign is good at jumping on whatever out of context comment of the day is, what they're not good at is understanding the challenges that middle class face. the fact that they don't believe the middle class bore the biggest brunt of the economic crisis is born out in your poll today. and a number of other polls that mitt romney doesn't understand the challenges that the middle class faces. what joe biden was saying, at which he often says on the campaign trail, is that because of the policies of the last
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administration and some of the same policies that mitt romney and paul ryan want to go back to, the middle class was severely punished and has take an while to bounce back. but the president has put the middle class at the center of everything that he has done over the past four years and he'll talk about that tonight. >> now, one of the things that the republicans are sure to talk about tonight is debt. trillions of dollars in debt. the failure of president obama from their perspective to do anything about it. i'm sure that the president would argue that republicans have stood in the way. but what is the most effective argument that president can make tonight about the failure under his watch to do anything about the debt and the fact that it has ballooned and we're facing the so-called fiscal cliff. >> well, a couple things. he was handed a record deficit when he came into office. >> does it work to keep talking about what happened before? >> only to put in context of where he wants to take the country. we were handed a record debt. record deficit when we walked in because of two wars that weren't paid for, two tax cuts that weren't paid for. because of the economic crisis we had to take emergency action. he would do that same thing
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today. we saved millions of american families from the severe -- most severe economic crisis we've seen in our life times. now the president cut a trillion dollars and he has a plan to do more, a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan. the only person on that stage tonight with a real deficit reduction plan scored by the cbo, you know, scored by independent economists is barack obama. mitt romney, doesn't have a deficit reduction plan. he wants to spend $2 trillion more in defense, $5 trillion more in a tax cut won't tell us how you pay for, before you even start talking about deficit reduction. it's a joke to think mitt romney will actually take action to redaus the deficit. >> taxes, this week he did come out with this proposal of eliminating $17,000 in deductions. >> right. >> your response to that? >> well, you know, he left out a number of different details of that proposal but i would also say that limiting deductions to $17,000 for middle-class
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families still results in a tax increase. even in just the health premium deduction, for families last year, were about $15,000. there you go. what happens to the mortgage deduction, charitable deduction, child deduction. he's raising taxes on middle class families. >> if this comes up and mitt romney starts to do that math that paul ryan wouldn't do, i'm sure this will be a topic of discussion. >> how worried are you about the jobs report on friday? >> we face this every month. you'll probably see steady progress. we've created 5.1 million private sector jobs, 30 consecutive months of growth i think that will continue on friday but as the president has said and will say tonight, we have to do more. there are things we can do right now to strengthen our economy, increase growth, create more jobs, and that's what he wants to do. >> what's the mood inside the debate camp? is the president taking constructive criticism? is he bristoling? responding to jibes from john kerry playing mitt romney? >> well, the mood is a lot of
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hard work, you know, he's been able to take a couple of trips, you know, to the hoover dam and he went to visit our field office, but, you know, he's putting good time in to get ready for this debate. as you know we had to cut back other debate prep because of the job of being president, but he's taken the criticism well and i think that you'll see him show up tonight well prepared. >> there is a foreign policy debate exploding around him and this is supposed to be a domestic policy debate. the question now as darrell issa and know jason chav fits right letters to hillary clinton demanding answers to what happened in benghazi, questions about whether people there asked for more security, whether there was an intelligence failure, there's talk of plans for retaliation, if the targeting can be found, what is the response to the republican criticism and criticism from some democrats that this was not handled well? >> well, i'll leave some of the details to my white house
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friends because it's better for them to answer some of these substantive questions but say a couple of things. one, since the moment of that attack we've been focused on two things, embassy security all over the world and getting to the bottom of that attack and bringing to justice the people who perpetrated it. that's what our focus has been on. as new information has come to light, the white house and the administration has shared it. to congress, to the american people. i think this criticism from the romney campaign, mitt romney himself, is really obviously he's politicizing it for his own benefit but it's laughable to think that mitt romney thinks that he can outdo the president on foreign policy. the american people are looking for a steady, responsible, leader who will take the steps necessary to protect this country but do it in a responsible way and the president has done that and he's proven himself. and i don't need to run through the litany of it. for mitt romney, whether it's his foreign trip where he embarrassed the united states, embarrassed our greatest ally, or shot from the hip before he
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knew anything about the libya attack, even before families were notified, that recklessness, that irresponsibility, i think is taking a toll on him and it's taking a toll on his race. we'll probably see more. he keeps promising a foreign policy speech. it's been a lot of speeches with no policy in them. the one thing he doesn't -- he's good at critiquing the president. the one thing he doesn't do is put out what he would do differently on any particular issue in foreign policy. so we welcome this debate. we would love to have it with mitt romney because i think the american people do see a real difference between these two men and that's why they keep siding with the president in terms of his ability to be the commander in chief. >> stephanie cutter, previewing the debate, good luck to your team tonight. >> thanks, andrea. mitt romney, what is his battle plan? romney senior adviser and former senator jim talent joins us next. msnbc's prime time coverage of tonight's debate hosted by rachel maddow in new york and chris mathews in denver begins at 8:00 eastern after "hard
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ball." this is "andrea mitchell reports" live in denver only on msnbc. hey. hey eddie. i brought your stuff. you don't have to do this. yes i do. i want you to keep this. it'd be weird. take care. you too. [ sighs ] so how did it go? he's upset. [ male announcer ] spend less time at gas stations with best in class fuel economy. it's our most innovative altima ever. ♪
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i couldn't believe the other day when the president's opponents said that the 47% of the american people who don't pay income tax, just want to hang around and be dependent on the government, you know, we just had to ween them off of that because they didn't want to pay income tax. now, a guy with a tax account in the cayman islands is attacking other people for not wanting
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to -- i mean, you got to give him credit. >> bill clinton, back in new hampshire today, for the president. meanwhile, mitt romney is narrowing president obama's lead in our latest nbc news/"wall street journal" national poll but the battleground states show he has a difficult path to 270. tonight is his biggest chance to change the momentum of the campaign. what is his game plan? former senator jim talent a romney campaign senior adviser and joins me now in denver. thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. >> what's the mood inside mitt romney's debate preps? >> oh, i think he's working hard and eager to get out there and do it. i imagine they both are. you prepare and prepare and want to go out and debate and he's going to present the choice before the american people. we can go on the way we are, which is not all that viable or we can have a change of policies and get the economy moving and the deficit reduced. he's been practicing and i'm sure he'll give a good message tonight. >> one of the troubling factors
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for him throughout the last couple weeks has been the battleground states, likely voters, battleground states ohio, how do you catch up? how do you thread the needle if you cannot catch up in ohio? >> i think -- this is my belief about independent voters when the stakes are this high, they gather all the information they can before deciding and then they tend to break late and that's what they're going to do and the stakes are usually high. we can't go on -- 1.3% growth, median family income going down and they got a choice to make and i think they'll probably make it the last week to ten days. >> we see declining numbers, declining pool of undecided voters and yet ohio has been pretty solidly in president obama's camp. >> it sort of depends on the poll. i don't believe -- i think there's a lot of soft support that will move one way or the other in the middle and breks the last week to ten days. >> a lot of the damage we're seeing in our polls among voters is the 47%. you saw bill clinton was going
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after mitt romney on that. >> right. >> how does he tonight get around the impression that he was simply writing off half of america? >> yeah. well, i think what's going to happen tonight is they're going to have the voters are going to have sustained direct exposure to both candidates and they're going to see the choice in front of them. and i think this statement here or the vice president's statement here or the rest of it, have moved votes softly in the middle a little bit but tonight they're going to have a direct exposure and see the choice they have, between how we've been going and the opportunity we have to get this economy moving and get the budget under control. i think that's -- personally i think it's going to overwhelm a lot of previous impressions. >> mitt romney has been getting so much advice, solicited and unsolicited, be warm, be empathetic, have zingers, go after him, be tough, rush limbaugh says be tougher more aggressive, other people say don't do that, more likable. is this going to be the warm and fuzzy mitt romney, the tough aggressive mitt romney, is this
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going to be the i'll bet you $10,000 mitt romney, the mitt romney that touched rick perry on his shoulder invading his space? >> this is his first time on this kind of a spotlight. so -- i think it's going to be mitt romney presenting a choice to people. i think he's going to talk about what he wants to do to get the economy moving. >> doesn't he have to be more specific though? >> my gosh, 59-point plan. i mean he's been criticized for being too specific. >> those were goals. they weren't specific options for how to reduce the deficit. what he will do if he's going to proceed with these tax cuts, how is he going to make up the difference. now he's coming up with $17,000 in deductions, already that is being challenged by the other side. >> oh, my gosh, he's presented, for example, on entitlement reform the most detailed plan anybody's ever presented running for president. he's going to be i think substantive tonight and himself tonight and present the choice to the american people about what we're doing now and what we can do. we can't go on the way we are
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now. it's going to get better or worse and i think governor romney is going to make it better and that's what he's going to say tonight. >> a note about your home state senate race. what do you do about todd akin? do you think he should be elected to the united states senate? >> well, you know, i said the other day, i think we need change in the government in general and the united states senate in particular. i think we need a senator and senate who will vote to repeal obama care, get the budget under control. >> despite what he said? >> that's not claire -- i said i'm supporting mr. akin and he's going to work as hard as he can. >> mitt romney is not supporting todd akin. >> i'm a missourian. i want a senator who will vote to change the way the federal government is operating. that's not the incumbent of missouri. >> thank you for being with us today. >> up next, our politico briefing. the five things to watch for tonight in denver. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" special coverage of the presidential debate live in denver, only on msnbc.
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in today's debate edition of our politico briefing politico's list of the five things to watch tonight. politico's jonathan martin joins us now. hey, jonathan. what a gorgeous day here on this beautiful campus. let's talk about the five things to watch. you think that mitt romney has to get off to a strong start the first half hour. >> his first impression for millions of americans. come out and show how he can be president, that he belongs on the same stage with the president. and then his indictment of the president but also tell the story about what he wants to do in the next four years. he has to get a lot done in the first half an hour because it's a cliche, but the first impression does count. >> and how -- the second thing is how hard will president obama come out swinging? >> i think president obama's entire campaign going back tokts of last year, andrea, against governor romney has been really tough, really aggressive and i think you're going to see that
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once again tonight. he will say mitt, you ssupport same policies that got us into this mess, he will go after the tax cuts for the rich, wall street regulations, we know what he's going to say and no doubt he's going to say it off the bat. >> the third thing the magic 47%, how high that's going to play and whether or not mitt romney can sneak in benghazi and the foreign policy attack lines in a domestic debate? >> the most telling tv ad in the last two weeks has been the obama decision to put the romney comments about the 47% by itself in a tv ad. that tells me that they're pulling and their polling and focus groups were devastating when it came to the impact of that on romney. you will see president obama try to work that in and the same time, given the headlines for the last couple weeks on libya you will see governor romney try to go after president obama on competence, on foreign policy but also on the broader issue of competence and leadership. >> and that brings you to the fourth point which is president
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obama ready for prime time? he's been president for four years. >> right. >> and he is well known for being able to give the great speech. >> right. >> is he ready for this combat? >> that's right. i mean, governor romney, the 20th in the course of the primary, this is a different level. president obama has nodd not ha one for some time. i think president obama has to be careful month to not come off as too harsh. hillary, you're likable enough, when the president can come off a little bit cold. so i think he's going to have to be careful on that. >> and finally, as we go, who brings up bill clinton first? will we see he's campaigning in new hampshire today so he's being deployed. >> i have no doubt that president obama will be happy to invoke bill clinton's support here. and i wouldn't be surprised if romney mentioned him either in terms of trying to contrast the version of the democratic party under clinton and the president
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obama version of the party. >> of course, bill clinton really was responsible for the obama bounce out of the convention many people think. that was the speech. >> absolutely. >> we'll be watching. >> thanks, andrea. >> thanks. up next, the political battleground here in colorado. we'll talk to democratic senator michael bennett. this is "andrea mitchell reports" live in denver only on msnbc. i'm with sandra who just got these great glasses.
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independent. i think the president is aheaded a going to win here. >> what about there are other factors here. you've got what happened in aurora, colorado, now that gun control issue and this heartbreaking ad really on the air right now, i think we've got a little -- we've got an example of this advertisement from one of the victims of the shooting which happened barely 12 miles from here i think, and he's pleading with some -- pleading for gun control for some action. let's watch. >> this past summer in a movie theater in colorado i was shot. shot in the face and neck. but i was lucky. in the next four years, 48,000 americans won't be so lucky because they'll be murdered with guns in the next president's term. enough to fill over 200 theaters. so when you watch the presidential debates, ask yourself, who has a plan to stop gun violence. let's demand a plan.
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>> this is the mayors against illegal guns. they've put the money up for this. neither president obama or mitt romney is ready to take on the gun lobby. is that a disappointment to you? >> i don't think in this campaign this issue is foremost on people's minds. it is very much on our minds in colorado because of this tragedy. we need to have a conversation about what we want to do going forward on this issue, but it doesn't surprise me that it hasn't been an issue in this campaign. >> what's your challenge here in winning colorado for the president? >> i think the president needs to keep doing what he's doing. this state values consistency. they want a politician, because it's a diverse state, says the same thing in this part of the state as in another part of the state and in one room and the other room, and his opponent had has difficulty with that. >> what about the fact you have the jobs numbers out on friday, continuing hardship for the
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middle-class voter and for, you know, those who are unemployed and those worried about losing their jobs and those still facing underwater with their housing? >> you know, as i travel the state i think people have a sense that things are getting better but where aee're nowhere we need to be. median incomes are going down and it is affecting people and we have to go back to washington after this election is over and actually start working on behalf of the american people and i think the people of colorado are going to want president obama in the white house when we do that. >> senator michael bennett, thank you very much. >> thanks. >> thanks for the hospitality in colorado. >> we're delighted. come back. >> we will, often. and sometimes winning a debate is all about playing it safe and avoiding huge gafs. look at the misses from past debates. >> there is no soviet domination of eastern europe and there never will be under a ford administration.
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>> governor, if kitty dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an ir rev kable death penalty for the killer? >> no, i don't, bernard. you know i've opposed the death penalty during all of my life. >> it's not only what's your philosophy and position on issues but can you get things done? and i believe i can. >> i think in terms of the recession, of course you feel it when you're president of the united states. that's why i'm trying to do something about it. investing more, better education systems. >> "the washington post's" chief correspondent dan balz joins me now. you watched so many of these debates and posed eight questions that you think sets the stage for tonight. >> right. >> let's talk about first what's at stake here. the first debate, the first face-off between the two men. >> the first debate is always the most important. it draws the biggest audience.
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the stakes for both president obama and mitt romney are big. but obviously bigger for mitt romney because he's had a bad couple of weeks and i think there is more pressure on him at this point to do something that changes the nature of the debate, changes the nature of the race, gives people an opportunity to take a fresh look at him and i think that's what he'll be trying to do tonight. >> what do you think the winning strategies are? your second question. the winning strategies for each side. >> the winning strategy for governor romney is to do two things which are not easily done together. one is to be pretty aggressive on the president, to go after him, to attack him in ways that he's not been able to do because they've never been face to face. at the same time he needs to come across as likable. he's got a deficit on that issue and has to do those together. that's not easy as one of the republican strategists i talked to said to me. no pressure. he's got to do all these things at once. for president obama he's getting a lot of advice. don't be arrogant, don't respond always to governor romney, don't
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attack. but i think the most important thing he has to do to win this debate or to come out feeling as though he's done what he needs to do is talk about the progress that has been made, small as it may be, he wants to emphasize there is some progress that's been made and get people to continue asto feel as though there is some progress. >> can a debate really change things? we saw the clip, of course, of gerald ford, that is one case where he came out with a ten-point deficit just that switch from what he had said against jimmy carter and that was the race. >> we can look back at individual debates and say that had an effect on rate for at least a moment. john kerry had a good couple debates -- >> but he still didn't win. >> i think that for governor romney, he needs to have something happen here tonight in which there is at least for the moment a change in perceptions. whether that turns around the whole race, i mean what we know at this point is this a competitive race nationally, the
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battlegrounds is more difficulty against president obama and the task for him is to get to the point where he can go forward and have this race perceived as being very competitive all the way to the end. >> who is the better debater and does the format favor one side or the other. >> when i asked a lot of people about this, romney, obama, obama, romney, who's the better debater both have clear debate skills and shown those in their debates over the time. governor romney had very good debates in the republican primaries against his opponents and was very effective in those. president obama had some pretty good debates particularly the general election debates against senator mccain. the new format they're using i'm not sure it favors either candidate. it gives president obama a little bit more opportunity to talk at length which he wants to do about his record and about the things he's going to do going forward and also to draw some contrast with governor romney. for governor romney it may give him an opportunity rather than looking like he has canned answers to show people he's more thoughtful and warmer and more
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likable. >> dan balz, both warm and likable. thank you very much. thanks for being with us. >> thanks. >> up next, new questions about security and intelligence behind the benghazi terror attack. former ambassador to iraq chris hill joining us live here in denver. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. check out the latest collection of snacks from lean cuisine. creamy spinach artichoke dip,
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that angered the turkish government. the prime minister says the syrian government will be held accountable for this and we also understand that turkish officials are now reaching out to nato to possibly exercise nato's article in which any member of nato that is attacked could respond and it's really just highlighting the sense situation on the turkish/syria border there after this deadly incident. the attack in aleppo you referenced really two different accounts coming out from inside syria. the syrian government, the official line from them, this was a terrorist attack, three suicide car explosions taking place in aleppo targeting a military installation, an officers club that killed 31 people. opposition activists say this was an attack targeting the command headquarters if you will of the military operating in aleppo that killed at least 40 people. over the past several days, we know that syrian rebels have been launching an offensive to try to capture the entire city of aleppo. we also know from pro government
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sources that the syrian military has deployed additional troops to that fight by some estimates as many as 30,000. so it is indeed a very difficult and bloody day in the city of aleppo and across syria. >> thanks to you, amman, for that report. and libya, the administration under fire increasing fire, from congress over its handling of the benghazi attack. new questions being raised about security and intelligence flail yours house republicans issa and chav fits. >> they diminished the security profile. it was not some spontaneous video out there that caused this. there were lots of signs out there and we need this administration to come clean on it. >> they're going to be holding hearings next week. joining me former ambassador to iraq. we are on your campus. thank you for having us here. >> good day. >> we've seen this movie play before, but right now, the
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administration went out, probably too early with an incomplete report from the u.n. ambassador susan rice on "meet the press" and other programs and now are being called to task. the security in benghazi was very, very thin. and we have the situation where there was clear -- there were clear warnings. what does the administration do? how do they handle these inquiries? >> first of all there's an investigation under way. it's an accountability board that's looking into it. the first thing is, they probably need to pick up the pace because in the first place, you have people really rushing out to try to give an account and often the first counts are wrong. and so i think they've taken a hit for that. now they're going to take a hit unless they get moving on the accountability review board and try to get something out there that is -- explainable. and frankly i think there are a lot of issues there to look at. the question of security, the question of, you know, the whole issue of whether benghazi was butnd down. i don't think this is really a
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presidential issue. i mean the notion that the president is supposed to know where each security officer is at a given time, but it is an issue about the overall ability of the administration to manage these problems in a troubled part of the world. >> in this political climate the republicans were saying that the president should have been responsible for what a press officer in cairo put out. this does rise to the level of whether the state department anticipated security problems, whether they, you know, they clearly were aware of the warnings, the fact that the brits had shut down their mission, their consulate or whatever, the mission was in benghazi, we understand that chris stevens wanted to be there, had a connection to benghazi, had been there during the war. but was he adequately secured and what about the nurfailures
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intelligence. >> they knew libya was not going to calm down overnight and have multiparty elections and a normal place overnight. they had to look at the tactical issues there and it seemed there were a lot of problems with militias running around not integrated into any police force let alone the national army. there were issues they needed to look at. on the other hand you're trying to manage that risk with the need to get out, talk to the libyan people, make sure they understand that we care, that we didn't just lose interest once gadhafi left the scene. i think it is -- it was very important to get out there, but, you know, i think the accountability review board is going to look at that very crucial question how well did they manage the risk? you cannot eliminate the risk. this is what diplomats do. we are out there, many of these circumstances, so i think it was the right thing to be out there, but how did they really manage this risk? >> the other question is retaliation. we are told that there is planning going on, there isn't a plan, they don't have a target list, but they're looking for opportunities in north africa to go after some of the terrorists
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who may have been involved? >> well, i sure hope so and i mean, i was out in these places and if i had ever been killed in these places, i sure -- i'm sure my last wish would be they would go after these people. i'm sure they're doing it. i would rather it not be done on the front page of newspapers as today but it's important people know if you come after americans like that we're coming after you. >> hillary clinton is speaking about this at a news conference at the state department right now. i think we can drop in and hear what she's saying. >> formed an accountability review board to examine this attack and to explore how we can prevent anything like this from happening in the future. the board is beginning its work this week under the leadership of ambassador thomas pickering. the board's mandate is to determine whether our security systems and procedures in benghazi were appropriate in light of the threat environment,
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whether those systems and procedures were properly implemented, and any lessons that may be relevant to our work around the world. the men and women who serve this country as diplomats deserve no less than a full and accurate accounting, wherever that leads. and i am committed to seeking that for them. >> secretary clinton under pressure and saying that there will be a full and accurate accounting but as you have pointed out ambassador hill, they need to speed this up. they can't be bureaucratic about this. they are being requested on the hill by next week and darrell issa has shown with fast and furious he's not going to let go of this. >> that's clear. they also have to be careful not to have any more mistakes or, you know, errors in these sort of narrative of what actually happened. i think they have to be really careful but my goodness,
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ambassador pickering managed i think some eight embassies. if there's one person who can know something about security, it's going to be ambassador pickering. i'm sure he'll get to it very quickly. >> thank you so much. great to be here. >> thanks, >> thanks, ambassador hill. in today's amr moment, a night to remember for the miami marlins adam greenberg. adam was hit in the head with the first pitch he ever saw in the major leagues back in 2005 but seven years later, the marlins gave him his big wish, one time at-bat. he got a standing ovation but unfortunately for greenberg, he had to face a knuckleballer, the mets star pitcher r.a. dickey. still, greenburg said that moment would last an eternity for him. s gives you a way to make any day a special occasion. new mini cream pies for one. real whip cream and a cookie-crumb crust. marie callender's. it's time to savor.
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gee and which political story will make headlines the next 24 hours? chris cillizza is back with us and be the debate and the fact checking, we will be there to fact check it tonight and the follow-up what the candidate
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does tomorrow to try to make up for hits, runs and misses. >> i love that music, andrea. it just makes me smile. i love election season. if you like politics, if you like presidential politics, this is a huge night. we don't know what's going to happen but i would say, look, we know we're going to have lots and lots of people watching, very high stakes. and what happens tonight, as you point out, i think it is not just the 90 minutes in denver, it's what happens after that, how the debate is cast, how it's saved by voters, how it's received by folks who are already decided, how it's decided by folks who haven't decided yet some, we are into debate season. i could not be more excited. >> and it's pretty late for debate season. we are talking about october, not september. this is very little margin for error, very limb room for them to make up for any problems they may make. we will see the president tomorrow in denver at a rally, then he goes wisconsin, interestingly, and then mitt romney heads to virginia. so, he will be with paul ryan,
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the team together again in virginia. the importance of virginia, we have seen in the battleground state polls, virginia and florida neck in neck now, they are behind in ohio, so they have got to win virginia, north carolina and florida for sure. chris cillizza? >> absolutely, andrea, no question. couldn't agree more. >> okay. that does it for us. we will see you later tonight. thanks so much, chris. and that's it for our edition of "andrea mitchell reports," debate night tonight. join us tomorrow, live in denver, complete wrap-up of tonight's debate. my colleague, tamron hall, has a look at what's next on news nation. hi, tamron. >> hi, andrea. in our next hour the heat is on and the first question has not even been asked in tonight's debate. conservatives thought they had an a-ha moment with a release of a tape from 2007 only to be counted by a tape releetsd of the "huffington post" of paul ryan. are these tapes fair comparison and how relevant are they tonight? [ woman ] ring. ring.
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hi, everyone, i'm tamron hall. the news nation is following the heat before the boiling point. if you thought the fireworks would start tonight at the debate, wrong. both sides have been lobbing grenades all day. president obama takes off for colorado within the hour. mitt romney is already there the exchange of fire started late last night and it is still going on right now. let's start off with the tapes that have been released in the past 24 hours. the conservative web site, the daily caller, came out with a video that showed then-senator obama speaking at hampton university in 2007. they called it the other race speech. but it is n